Surname Saturday: Ping-Pang-Pung-Pagan-Paine
These surnames emanate from different parts of Scotland, but all are rooted in the personal name Payne. The Old English word “payn” was a name given to a villager or someone who lived in the country.
According to House of Names, the west coast of Scotland and the Hebrides Islands were home to both the Ping and Pang families, while a northern region of Scotland, Dalriada, was home to the Pung and Pagan families. In ancient times it was a Gaelic kingdom which comprised parts of western Scotland and northeastern Ulster in Ireland.
Pagan is noted as a spelling variation of Ping, Pang and Pung, including other spellings such as Paganell, Paganel, Pagnell, Paine, Payne, Pain and others. Immigration records show that some of the Scottish settlers who crossed the ocean to North America went to Canada. And, some who landed in America went north to Canada during the Revolutionary War, considering themselves Loyalists to the King of England.
Thomas Paine, American patriot and activist, spurred the colonists to revolution with his fiery rhetoric, published in pamphlets such as Common Sense and The American Crisis. Clearly, he was not a fan of the King, and his works were viciously attacked by Loyalists. Surprisingly, some of his works weren’t welcomed by other American revolutionaries. Late in his life John Adams was quoted as saying of Common Sense: “What a poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous mass.”
After the war, Paine returned to England in 1787 and became involved in yet another revolution – the French Revolution. As an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution, he published pamphlets and was given honorary French citizenship (Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton were also so honored).
He eventually found himself on the wrong side of the faction known as the Girondins who wanted to do away with the monarchy. Paine, siding with Louis XVI because he was personally opposed to capital punishment, was arrested and thrown in prison in December of 1793. Claiming that he was an American citizen didn’t help his cause either.
Through a quirk of fate he narrowly missed being executed. The jailer went through the prison and placed a chalk mark on the door of those who were awaiting execution. The mark was placed on the outside, but for some reason Paine’s door was open and the mark was placed on the inside. He was released the following year and remained in Paris until 1802.
In 1796, incensed that George Washington had done nothing on his behalf while imprisoned, he fired off a scathing letter, calling the President of the United States a dishonorable and treacherous man: “The world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles or whether you ever had any.”
Paine eventually returned to America, but found himself out-of-favor with many after his recent writings and his very public attack on George Washington. He died on June 8, 1809 and disdained was he in his own country, the Quakers (he was Quaker) wouldn’t allow him to be buried in their graveyard. He was buried near a walnut tree on his farm.
Some newspapers made only a passing mention of his death. The New York Evening Post printed the original obituary, which was then copied by newspapers across the country. One statement summed up widespread American sentiment of Thomas Paine at that point in history: “He had lived long, did some good, and much harm.”
Pings in Pulaski County, Kentucky
My Tombstone Tuesday article this week (read it here if you missed it) was about Iredel and Siotha Ping Wright of Pulaski County, Kentucky. I generally don’t write Tombstone articles about people who are related to me, but Iredel and Siotha lived in the county where many of my ancestors settled. Many distant relatives still live there, and although I’ll probably never meet any of them, I saw names familiar to me when researching these articles.
I thought “Ping” might not break my rule-of-thumb, but as it turns out the Ping family is probably related, at least by marriage in some cases, to at least two of my ancestral lines, Brinson and Earp. It’s quite possible they also married others of my line like the Stogsdills, Chaneys, Alexanders, Fulchers and more. It just fascinates me to no end how, I believe, we are all somehow related to one another. Maybe that’s the way the good Lord intended it, eh?
Research Note: These surnames aren’t exclusively Scottish or English. Ping and Pang are also Oriental or Asian surnames; Pagan (also spelled Pagán) is Hispanic.
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Tombstone Tuesday: Iredel and Siotha Ping Wright
Iredel Wright was born to parents Henry Monroe and Rebecca (Cordell) Wright in December of 1859, according to the 1860 Census, this despite the fact that his tombstone reads December 12, 1860. According to family historians, Henry who was born in 1826 had been adopted by a woman named Elizabeth Wright, so it’s unclear who his parents were, or if in fact their names were also Wright.
Henry and Rebecca married in Tennessee and later moved to Pulaski County sometime in the 1850’s and lived there the remainder of their lives. It appears that Henry registered in October of 1863 for service in the Union Army (the record was a bit hard to locate because he was listed as “Henry Right” – beware of bad spellers when you’re looking for long-lost relatives!). Whether he ever served is unclear since his name didn’t appear on an 1883 list of pensioners1, although there is a Henry Wright listed as a member of a Kentucky Union Regiment.2
Pulaski County, according to The Kentucky Encyclopedia (p. 748), had Confederate sympathizers, but the majority of the population were Unionists. Unlike last week’s subject, Simpson Socrates Nix (also a Kentucky resident), the Wrights (and Pings) were on the side of the North. Pulaski County sent twelve hundred men to the Union Army, and one of the worst Confederate defeats in the mountains occurred in the county on January 19, 1862.
Siotha Ping was born on February 12, 1868 in Pulaski County to parents William Green and Elizabeth Ping. Will was also a veteran of the Civil War, having enlisted sometime in the summer or early fall of 1863. Will’s father Lewis also served and later applied for and received a government pension for his service.
According to family historians, Lewis enlisted as a Private in Company B of the 12th Regiment of the Kentucky Volunteer Infantry for a three-year term on October 12, 1861, and was mustered in on January 30, 1862. Lewis served faithfully until falling ill at Corinth, Mississippi, scene of one of the most devastating defeats for the Confederates in terms of casualties and deaths.
After being transferred to a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky he was mustered out on February 24, 1863. Sometime during his service, Lewis had contracted measles, which along with other diseases like typhoid fever, caused more deaths than battle wounds. As a result, Lewis wasn’t able to perform manual labor for the rest of his life.
Iredel married Siotha Ping on December 28, 1882. Siotha was a couple of months shy of turning fifteen and Iredel had just turned twenty-three. Various family trees record that Matilda Elizabeth Wright was born on October 24, 1882. More children followed, as enumerated in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 censuses: Telia, William, Mary, Maggie, Smith, Millard Fillmore, Esau, and Marion Curry, Alva and Edward Harmon. The 1910 census indicates that Siotha was the mother of eleven children and ten were still living at that time.
On November 25, 1901, Iredel was appointed as U.S. Postmaster for Randall. Sometime between that date and the 1910 census, however, the Wright family moved to Oklahoma. In 1910 they were living in Carr, Tillman County, Oklahoma and in 1920 residing in Grayson, Jefferson County, Oklahoma. However, by 1930 Iredel and Siotha had returned home to Pulaski County and were living with Alva and his family.
On July 29, 1940 Siotha died at the age of seventy-two of kidney disease and hypertension. She and Iredel had been enumerated for the 1940 census in April and he was still farming at the age of eighty. Iredel lived four more years until his death on August 9, 1944 at the age of eighty-four. Iredel and Siotha are buried in the Goodwater Cemetery in Somerset.
I’ve been doing some research of late on my Pulaski County ancestors and had stumbled across some unique names (first and last) – that is, by the way, how I sometimes select subjects for these articles. In researching today’s article, I found a family tree which included Will Ping and interestingly the tree was named “Ping-Stout family tree” which immediately piqued my interest because I have Stout ancestors. In fact, I have recently discovered that I have three Stout cousins who are also members of our local genealogical society.
Sure enough, this person and I share ancestors, Richard and Penelope Stout of Middletown, New Jersey. Theirs is a fascinating (and in the case of Penelope, harrowing) story which I’ll have to write about sometime – stay tuned.
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Motoring History: Ford 999 Ices A Record
Granted, the record didn’t last for long, but on this day in 1904 Henry Ford set a land speed record on the frozen surface of Lake St. Clair in Michigan. After founding the Detroit Automobile Company in August of 1899, only to have it go under by January 1901, Henry Ford still loved cars and racing. It was time to re-invent himself.
In October of 1901 he thought his best chance to restore himself financially was to race and win against the best race car driver in America at the time, Alexander Winton. Winton’s cars were more advanced and Henry wasn’t favored to win, but win he did. In the annals of Ford Motor Company history it is referred to as “The Race That Changed Everything”. You can read an article from last year here.
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Surname Saturday: Reeve (and America’s first law school)
This English surname is occupational, an official one for a steward or bailiff. According to House of Names, the name can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain, and one that was given to the member of a family who “worked as a local representative of a lord.” The surname is derived from the Middle English word “reeve” which was derived from an Old English word, “(ge)refa”.
Early records show Sampson le Reve on the Hundred Rolls of Suffolk in 1273 and James le Reve appeared in the Calendar of Letter Books (London, 1281). Spelling variations include: Reeve, Reeves, Reve, Reave, Reaves, Rives, Reavis and more.
In researching the Reeve surname I came across an early American with an interesting forename I had never seen before. As it turns out, he made quite an impact on American history and the shaping of our judicial system.
Tapping Reeve
Although I saw one reference to his name being “Tappan”, most sources have his name as “Tapping”, his mother’s surname. Tapping was born on October 17, 1744 to parents Reverend Abner and Deborah (Tapping) Reeve in Fire Place (now Brookhaven), Suffolk, New York.
Tapping graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1763, and while continuing his post-graduate education was the headmaster of a school in Elizabeth, New Jersey. During that time he was also hired as the private tutor of the orphaned children of Reverend Aaron Burr, Sr. and his wife Esther Edwards Burr.
Reverend Burr’s children, Sally and Aaron (who later served as the third Vice President of the United States under President Thomas Jefferson), were under his tutelage for several years. Tapping fell in love with Sally, but because their age difference was so great and he hadn’t yet established himself financially, he was refused permission to marry her.
Tapping went to Hartford, Connecticut (he had received his Masters from the College of New Jersey in 1766) and read the law under Judge Jesse Root. With his commitment to a promising career as a jurist, his request to marry Sally was then granted. On June 4, 1771 the couple married. The following year Tapping received his credentials and the couple moved to Litchfield, Connecticut where he began his law practice.
With the success of his law practice, Tapping was able to build a home for Sally across the street from Governor Oliver Wolcott. In 1774, his brother-in-law Aaron moved to Litchfield so he could study law with Tapping. However, revolution was more on the mind of young Aaron when he departed the following year to join the Continental Army.
Tapping’s poor health prevented him from being an active participant in the Revolutionary War, although he was fervently patriotic. In 1776 he undertook the task of recruiting volunteers for the Continental Army and was later commissioned as an officer (ceremonially only it appears), accompanying his recruits to New York and then returning to Connecticut to care for ailing wife Sally.
Tapping’s skills as a lawyer brought other young men to study under his tutelage like Aaron Burr had before the war. Apprenticing under another attorney or judge was common practice, but as his reputation spread and brought more students Tapping decided to develop a series of lectures that would help his students pass the bar exam and practice law.
At this point in American history there were no colleges or universities which offered law degrees. Thus, when Tapping began to develop curriculum the process became more formalized. At first, students met in his law office, but when the numbers increased dramatically he built a one-room building next door to his home.
After an eighteen-month course of lectures, the young men were well-prepared to succeed in the practice of law, should they pass the bar exam. Students took detailed notes in their classes then later re-copied them and bound them into leather volumes, forming the basis for their own personal “law library”. For the remainder of their careers as lawyers, these students possessed valuable reference material to guide them.
Tapping Reeve, of course, practiced law himself in addition to molding the minds of young men. One of his most prominent cases led to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts (Brom & Bett vs. Ashley). He was joined by another prominent attorney, Thomas Sedgwick, and together they were successful in helping their client Elizabeth Freeman (Bett), a slave, secure her freedom. The basis of their argument was a phrase contained in the Massachusetts Constitution, written in 1780, which stated “all men are born free and equal.”
Graduates of the Litchfield Law School went on to make their own mark on the American judicial system. According to the Litchfield Historical Society, the list of alumni included “two vice-presidents, 101 United States congressmen, twenty-eight United States senators, six cabinet members, three justices of the United States Supreme Court, fourteen governors and thirteen chief justices of state supreme courts.”
Tapping Reeve continued to teach his students until 1798 when he was appointed to sit as Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. At that time he hired one of his former students, James Gould, to run the school. He was later appointed to the state supreme court and was named its Chief Justice in 1814, serving just one year in that position before retiring. He died on December 13, 1823.
And that is how the first law school came into existence in America. The one-room school house, the original law school, and Tapping Reeve’s home were given status as National Historical Landmarks in 1965.
Tapping’s father Abner, who although a successful minister and an “extraordinary man” in the words of one biographer, experienced some moral failings. An article about Abner is included in the Early American Faith Special Edition on sale here.
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Ghost Town Wednesday: Proffitt, Texas
This ghost town in Young County, Texas was named after a part-time Methodist minister and storekeeper from Tennessee, Robert S. Proffitt, who migrated to Hood County, Texas in 1852 and then moved to Young County in the early 1860’s. Robert and his sons were cattle ranchers and settled in area along the Brazos River and Elm Creek near Fort Belknap.
In 1862 the town was founded and Robert’s son John later donated land for a cemetery, a Methodist Episcopal church, a school and a Masonic Lodge following the Civil War. The area was perfect for cattle raising, but was plagued with Indian depredations. Before the Civil War ended, a horrible event occurred on Elm Creek on October 31, 1864. It came to be known as the Elm Creek Raid.
This area of Texas is of particular interest to me since my great-great-grandmother Louisa Elizabeth “Eliza” Boone Hensley Brummett Dodson (there’s a story there I assure you!) and her family were ranchers in Jack County, east of Young County during this same period. Her obituary stated that she lived through those dangerous times of Indian depredations long before nearby Fort Richardson was established in that county. “She participated in the dangers and the privations of these formative days, attending the winning of the frontier when courage and determination were required in such large measure of those who could survive the trying ordeals of such a life.”
On the day of the 1864 raid, several hundred Kiowa and Comanche Indians attacked settlers. Ten people were killed that day, including one young lady who was scalped, and the son of a black slave. Five soldiers belonging to a Confederate company were killed while pursuing the Indians. Two women and five children were also taken captive, but by the end of 1865 all had been returned or rescued.
Another raid occurred on July 17, 1867 in the same area. Three young men were herding cattle and an Indian party came upon them, killed and scalped them. One of the young men was Robert Proffitt’s son, Patrick Euell Proffitt. Patrick and the other men, Rice Carlton and Reuben Johnson, all nineteen years old, were buried in a common grave which is today commemorated with an historical marker. Their grave was the first in what came to be called the Proffitt Cemetery.
John Proffitt, Robert’s son, started a freighting business and later opened a store in 1894. In 1880 a post office was established and later a Baptist church was also built. The town thrived for several years, although by 1925 the post office was closed, the same year John Proffitt died. The town’s population dwindled down to about fifty residents until in 1960 it rose to one hundred and twenty-five. County maps of the 1980’s, however, indicated a rural settlement near Elm Creek that consisted only of a church, community center and cemetery.
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Tombstone Tuesday: Simpson Socrates Nix (and a little Civil War history)
Simpson Socrates Nix was born on April 10, 1841 in Weakley County, Tennessee to parents Riley and Mary Ann (Alexander) Nix. Riley and Mary Ann were born in North Carolina, both in 1820, and they married on October 17, 1838 in Henry County, Tennessee. Their family was enumerated in Weakley County in 1850, but by 1860 they had relocated to Calloway County, Kentucky.
According to The History of Jasper County, Missouri, Riley was a farmer and also involved in local politics, serving as sheriff and public administrator. A posting at Find-A-Grave seems to indicate that Riley’s father was a slave owner in Tennessee, but it’s unclear whether Riley owned slaves. He and his family did, however, live in a part of Kentucky that was more sympathetic to the Southern slave states.
This article was enhanced, complete with sources, and published in the April 2018 issue of Digging History Magazine. The entire issue was devoted to the Civil War. Should you prefer to purchase the article only, contact me for more information.
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Surname Saturday: Noel
Noel is an English surname with French origins, according to most sources. Some Noel family historians believe the name may have originated among the Gallic tribes of Normandy in northern France, possibly those who lived in Noailles (pronounced no-ay). In France the name would have appeared as “Noël” and often associated with a person who was born on Christmas Day.
Noel is the French word for Christmas, with origins dating back before the Normandy invasion of 1066. Apparently a common practice, the Internet Surname Database points out that names like Easter and Midwinter were likewise associated with either holidays or seasons of the year. The spelling was slightly changed when it appeared in England in the mid-twelfth century – Robert fitz Noel.
French Noel family historians point out that Frenchmen bearing the surname Noël who came to America had their names recorded as “Noel” by the English. In England the name may have been associated with someone whose duty as a servant was to provide a yule log to his master.
Spelling variations include: Noel, Noël, Noell, Nole, Nowell, Naull and others. The name is not exclusively French or English, nor necessarily a Christian name either. While researching this surname I came across Abraham Noel who was of Jewish ancestry and a 1904 Russian immigrant. Based on historical New York immigrant passenger lists, Germany ranks the highest (93), followed by France (73).
Edmond Favor Noel
Edmond Favor Noel was born on March 4, 1856 to parents Leland and Margaret (Sanders) Noel in rural Holmes County, Mississippi. According to The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi, his ancestors were probably French Huguenots (Protestants) who fled to England. Large numbers of this persecuted religious group began to flee France in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
From England his ancestors came to settle in Essex County, Virginia in 1680. The Noel family remained there until Leland migrated to Mississippi. He later served in the Confederate Army, was captured by the Union Army in 1863 and while imprisoned lost his eyesight. He remained blind the rest of his life.
Edmond’s education was irregular until he entered high school in Louisville, Kentucky. Although he never attended college, he read law under his uncle, Major D.W. Sanders, a Louisville attorney. Before the American Bar Association began lobbying in the late nineteenth century to discontinue the practice of “reading the law” versus attending an accredited law school, this had been a common practice in America since early colonial days.
After passing an open examination in court, Edmond was admitted to the bar in March of 1877. He returned to Mississippi and opened a law practice. During the Spanish-American War he served as a captain in the Second Mississippi Volunteer Infantry. Following his admittance to the practice of law, he had pursued elective office, variously serving in the state legislature, as District Attorney of the Fifth Judicial District and as state senator.
He unsuccessfully ran for governor of Mississippi in 1903. In 1907 he was elected governor and served for one term. He married his second wife, Alice Tye Neilson, in 1905. Interestingly, her ancestry included her great uncle Nathaniel Alexander, one of the first governors of North Carolina. Her great-grandfather Abraham Clarke was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
After leaving office in 1912, Noel returned to his law practice in Lexington. He remained active in politics, making an unsuccessful run for national office (Senate) in 1918. In 1920 he was elected to the Mississippi State Senate and served there until his death on July 30, 1927.
Edmond Noel’s grave stone has to be one of the most interesting ones I’ve ever seen and a bonanza for genealogists. Although succinct, quite a bit of his and Alice’s genealogical data is engraved on the stone.
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Far-Out Friday: Honeymoon In The Corn Field
Their May-December marriage made headlines in early June of 1946, right along with worries over sky-rocketing milk prices (up one cent per quart!) and possible meat and bread shortages. One newspaper article noted that mothers were thinking about feeding their children cake instead of bread that night (let them eat cake!). However, for Mattie Large and her teenage husband, their marriage wasn’t such a big deal to them in the hills of eastern Kentucky near Louisa. It did raise eyebrows around the country though.
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Wild Weather Wednesday: Yet Another 1913 Historic Storm
From beginning to end, the year 1913 was a meteorologically-challenging year. Earlier this year, “Wild Weather Wednesday” articles covered two 1913 historic weather events: The Great Flood of 1913 (Part One and Part Two) and The White Hurricane. On July 10, 1913 the highest temperature ever recorded in the United States occurred in Death Valley – 134 degrees.
That year would end with an historic blizzard which buried the eastern slope of Colorado in early December. As the Daily Journal of San Miguel County reported on December 1, snow was “general throughout Colorado”, but the eastern slope would take the brunt of the storm. Days later the Steamboat Pilot reported their part of the state had entirely escaped the storm.
This article is no longer available for free at this site. It was re-written and enhanced, complete with footnotes and sources and has been published in the February 2018 issue of Digging History Magazine. Should you prefer to purchase the article only, contact me for more information.
I invite you to check out Digging History Magazine. Since January 2018 new articles are published in a digital magazine (PDF) available by individual issue purchase or subscription (with three options). Most issues run between 70-85 pages, filled with articles of interest to history-lovers and genealogists — it’s all history, right? 🙂 No ads — just carefully-researched, well-written stories, complete with footnotes and sources.
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Tombstone Tuesday: Mattie Grace Grob Large (1892-1992)
Some Tombstone Tuesday articles just beg to be written because the subject lived such a long and purposeful life. Today’s article is one of those.
Mattie Grace Grob was born on January 16, 1892 in Leavenworth, Kansas to parents Mathias and Martha (Kuellmer) Grob. Mathias was born in Germany in 1849 and immigrated with his parents to Ohio when he was four years old. Martha was the daughter of German immigrants and was born in Ohio in 1854. Mathias and Martha married on November 4, 1879 and to their marriage were born nine children, six of them living to adulthood, although their oldest child Elizabeth died at the age of thirty-six.
Mathias and Martha migrated to Kansas in 1883, where Mathias engaged in farming. His obituary noted that he was a self-made man, well-informed and a prosperous land owner. Early in adulthood he had become a Christian and loved to attend church. He was a generous person who diligently studied the Bible, able to hold forth on perplexing issues. In reading about Mattie’s life, it’s obvious her parents and their faith provided a great example to follow.
Mattie married Leo Seth Large on July 28, 1914. According to family historians, Leo’s father wasn’t around much during his childhood. His mother struggled to support her own children as well as those from James Large’s first marriage. In 1916 his mother disappeared and Leo and Mattie took care of some of the younger children. Perhaps this is why they had only two children of their own: Helen Kathryn (1916) and Leo Harvel (1918).
Leo was a truck farmer in Leavenworth County, Kansas, well known and respected by the community. After his retirement from farming, Leo and Mattie lived in DeSoto (Johnson County), Kansas. Mattie was a telephone operator for the city of DeSoto for several years. She was an active member of the local Methodist Church, volunteering her time to prepare meals for church dinners. She was also an expert gardener and a seamstress.
Leo died in 1962 of lung cancer and was buried in the DeSoto Cemetery. All through her life it appears Mattie Grace kept busy. I found several accounts of people who posted remembrances at Find-A-Grave. Mattie made such an impression on them and their memories are still vivid.
Like her father, she was a generous person, one friend remembering “you never left her house empty handed, whether it was a magazine, jar of jelly or a plant from her flower bed.” Her children, six grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren adored her.
Mattie Grace Grob Large had a long and purposeful life. She celebrated her one hundredth birthday in early 1992 and was residing in a Topeka nursing home. She passed away a couple of months shy of her one hundred and first on November 8, 1992. Some of the stories I write make me wish I’d known the person. Mattie is one of those people and I hope you enjoyed her story.
I was actually researching another husband and wife, Abraham and Sarah Large, when I came across Mattie’s story. In this holiday season of giving and goodwill, it seemed appropriate to tell Mattie’s heartwarming story instead. I ran across another Mattie Large while researching Mattie Grace. I’ll tell her story on Far-Out Friday – a true story you just can’t make up!
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